Benihana Opens Fourth DFW Location

American restaurant classic Benihana opens its Addison location today—the concept’s fourth in DFW. “When we started to do our work, we saw that Addison had basically our profile of guests, and we wanted to try to find a match,” Benihana CEO Tom Baldwin said. “We had looked for some time before we finally settled on this particular location.”

The spot on Belt Line Road was formerly home to a teppanyaki restaurant for nearly 30 years. It fell into disrepair and eventually closed due to COVID, before Benihana purchased it. Now, the redone, 242-seat restaurant features what Baldwin calls the brand’s “new, contemporary feel,” showcasing updated finishes alongside its well-known communal dining setup, where patrons can watch dishes being prepared on its 23 teppanyaki tables. It also houses a sushi lounge and bar.

The new location joins the brand’s collection of restaurants in North Texas, including locales in Las Colinas, Plano, and North Dallas. It is the eleventh location in Texas for the nationwide brand.

Baldwin says the company is continuing to explore growth in North Texas, taking each new opportunity as it comes.

“We’re actively growing our business to our country, but Dallas has been a particularly strong marketing opportunity. We have a very loyal following of guests here. So that’s why we’re reaching out and continue to explore opportunities.”

ParkHub Acquires Payment Integrator Fuzse

Parking software company ParkHub, headquartered in Dallas, has acquired Fuzse, a fellow DFW tech company. Fuzse launched in 2016 by former Stack Sports exec Lane Conner and has grown by integrating payment processing with mobile applications and e-commerce platforms.

Through ParkHub’s acquisition of Fuzse, leadership believes it is one step closer to becoming the top parking solution on the market.

“We are thrilled to bring Fuzse into the ParkHub fold as we strive toward payments leadership in the parking industry,” ParkHub founder and CEO George Baker Sr., said. “The convergence point of our hardware, software, and payments solutions is where our customers compete and win with better customer experience and rich data to inform every decision.”

Lane Conner will take on the role of president of payments for ParkHub following the acquisition. Terms of the deal were not disclosed.

SmartMoving Earns $41.5 Million in Funding

Dallas-based moving industry software company SmartMoving, attained a $41.5 million investment from Mainsail Partners. With its new capital, SmartMoving plans to accelerate the development of new products and improve its current offerings.

“Our mission is to build the best software to help moving companies create growth and run their businesses smoothly,” Tobe Thompson, founder and CEO of SmartMoving, said. “More than ever, moving companies require solutions that help their operations run efficiently and deliver high quality service.”

Dallas-based Deposits Closes $5 Million Seed Funding Round

Deposits, a Dallas-based fintech startup announced a successful recent seed funding round, led by ATX Venture Partners in Austin, that closed out at $5 million. The company aims to help community banking institutions such as credit unions, banks, and retailers improve their financial services.

Deposits CEO Joseph Akintolayo says local financial institutions are better trusted by the public, but also tend to offer a “limited range of modern services due to technological barriers.”

Deposits says the funding will be used to scale operations and infrastructure, grow their team, and develop additional platforms to further their overall mission of providing modern services to underbanked communities.